Tom McFadden Movies

A policeman and a lady scientist team up to recover her latest creation--a cybernetic, crime-fighting dog--from the crooks who made off with it. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

The spotlight in this episode is on T.C. (Roger E. Mosley, who coincidentally also wrote the script!), whose daughter Melody (Martina Stringer) is kidnapped for a $300,000 ransom. Forced to sell his helicopter to raise the money, T.C. must also endure the additional trauma of a "reunion" with his ex-wife Tina (Fay Hauser). Meanwhile, Magnum (Tom Selleck) is determined to find out if Tina's current boyfriend was responsible for the kidnapping. Former Diff'rent Strokes regular Shavar Ross (aka "Dudley Ramsey") appears as T.C.'S son Bryant. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In his first major TV project since Kojak, Telly Savalas stars as maverick Philadelphia criminal lawyer Nick Hellinger. He heads to Houston to defend a syndicate accountant accused of murder. The government seems inordinately interested in the case, as well it should be: The accountant is actually an undercover agent. Mob boss (Rod Taylor) also puts pressure on Hellinger in regards to the case. Hellinger's Law was the pilot for a series that looked as though it was an easy sell; but when it came down to the line, CBS, despite allegedly ordering several scripts to be written, decided not to go with the show. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Nice to see veteran hardcase character actor Charles Napier in a leading role, even if it's in something as eminently forgettable as Big Bob Johnson and His Fantastic Speed Circus. The eponymous Big Bob (Napier) is head man of a spit-and-vinegar auto racing team. Bob's aggregation makes a brief pit stop to save a deserving young man from being swindled by his devious uncle (William Daniels). The upshot of all this is a cross-country race between two souped-up Rolls Royce. Aimed squarely at the Smokey and the Bandit crowd, the made-for-TV Big Bob Johnson debuted June 27, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Travelling from New York to the small Nevada town of Cory, Kojak (Telly Savalas) and Crocker (Kevin Dobson) set about the task of extraditing mob witness Arnold B. Saxler (Vincent Baggetta). Unfortunately, several hired thugs are already in the vicinity, with loaded guns at the ready. The remainder of the episode is devoted to a grueling gantlet, with Kojak never entirely sure who the good guys and bad guys really are. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Filled with brutal sex and graphic violence this western centers on the vengeful quest of a Mexican caballero who gets even with those who viciously gang raped his sister while he stood helplessly by and watched. The hero knows exactly who the perpetrator is and carefully bides his time until he is grown. He then gets a job as a stablehand on the villain's ranch. His own revenge begins when he kidnaps and rapes the ranchers wife leaving just enough clues to insure that the enraged husband and his gang will find him. A horrible climactic clash ensues before this vile film's blood-soaked, tragic finale. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Several years after the events of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Jesse Walsh and his family moved into the home of Nancy Thompson, the only survivor of supernatural killer Freddie's reign of terror. Haunted by dreams of the disfigured child-killer, the lonely Jesse has trouble sleeping, falls asleep often in school and quarrels with his picture-perfect family. Lisa, his prospective girlfriend, discovers Nancy's diary in Jesse's closet, and slowly he learns of his predecessor's ordeal. When his sadistic gym teacher catches Jesse blowing off steam at a leather bar, he attempts to exact punishment of an unsavory nature. Freddie intervenes, savagely murdering the coach in the school shower room, and Jesse must flee the crime scene naked, terrified that he's going insane. His parents become convinced he's on drugs, but Jesse knows that Freddie is trying to possess him. Bereft of sleep, alienated, and frightened of what he might do to his sister or Lisa -- especially if he responds to her sexual advances -- the youth attempts to sequester himself in his friend Ron's bedroom; Freddie emerges though, killing Ron and sending Jesse on the lam. Mayhem erupts when Freddie/Jesse crashes Lisa's pool party, leading to a showdown at the abandoned factory where the madman first preyed on the children of Springwood. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

James Toback wrote and directed this typically intense and idiosyncratic satiric thriller. Byron Levin (Ray Sharkey) is an investment planner who has grown tired of his job and is bored by his relationship with his girlfriend Vicky (Susan Heldfond). When Frederick Stockheinz (Klaus Kinski), an international business magnate, approaches Byron about helping him establish a new firm in a small South American nation, he gladly accepts the offer. It isn't long before Byron discovers that he's gotten involved in something far more complicated than he ever imagined. The country has rich reserves of silver, but it is also in a state of political upheaval, and Byron is dealing with dictators and fending off revolutionaries as often as he minds the bottom line. Byron also encounters Frederick's wife Catherine (Ornella Muti), a beautiful woman with whom he begins having a very dangerous affair. Love and Money also features legendary director King Vidor in a small role as Byron's father; it was his first acting role in a film, and his last (he died nine months after the film's release). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

T.T. (Dennis Christopher), a Midwesterner, has traveled to the beaches of California for a dose of the surfin' life. He believes that the people he finds there are glamorous and knowledgeable. They reject his Midwestern nerdiness, make fun of him, and generally give him a hard time for not fitting in and wanting to. However, eventually he figures out that they are no wiser than he is, and that their lives are surprisingly empty. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The feature film directing debut of actress Betty Thomas, this romantic farce attempts to mimic the screwball comedies of the 1930s. Andrew McCarthy stars as Cliff Godfrey, a doll house designer and perpetual loser in love who is dumped by his fiancee on the eve of their pre-nuptial vacation to Mexico. Informed by pretty travel agent Claire Enfield (Helen Hunt) that his tickets are non-refundable, the depressed Cliff goes to a bar, where he picks up a drunk party girl, Amanda Hughes (Kelly Preston), who agrees to accompany him on the trip south of the border. Once she sobers up, however, Amanda proceeds to make Cliff's vacation a nightmare, alternately flirting with and teasing him, then rejecting him for more studly prospects. But Cliff runs into Claire, who's staying at the same hotel while photographing a travel brochure, and the two begin spending time together, as Cliff helps her on the project by modeling for her pictures. Though Cliff and Claire are discovering that they are each other's soul mate, the flighty Amanda threatens to destroy their nascent romance. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

This schlock horror classic from the 1970s is a product of the career ebb experienced by director John Frankenheimer. Robert Foxworth stars as Dr. Robert Verne, an inner-city physician renowned for his compassion and fairness. So he's asked by the EPA to mediate a dispute between Native American tribes and a polluting paper mill in isolated northern Maine. Accompanied by his pregnant wife Maggie (Talia Shire), a classical musician, Robert journeys to the deep woods, where he meets the tribal leader, John Hawks (Armand Assante) and a representative of the mill, Mr. Isley (Richard Dysart). It turns out that the mill is indeed poisoning the local water supply with mercury, causing illness among tribe members and some mutated local wildlife. The Native Americans and the paper mill point fingers at each other for a rash of recent disappearances in the area, but Robert believes that something more ominous is responsible when he observes a huge salmon eat a duck. He's proved right when he encounters an enormous, mutated grizzly bear with a taste for human flesh. Unfortunately for Robert and Maggie, he has taken one of the creature's cubs back to camp, leading an angry mother bear to his tent flap. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel, Valdez is Coming stars Burt Lancaster in the title role. A scrupulously honest Mexican-American marshal, Bob Valdez is double-crossed and humiliated by wealthy, unscrupulous rancher Jon Cypher. Since Cypher has the law on his side, Valdez is obliged to mete out his own justice. He kidnaps Cypher's mistress Susan Clark to force the rancher's hand. At first, Cypher is able to rally a group of tough hombres against Valdez, but one by one they side with the marshal. Director Edwin Sherin, who'd helmed the Broadway production of The Great White Hope, makes several rather anachronistic points regarding the film's racial issues; on the other hand, Valdez is Coming is one of the most-authentic looking westerns ever made-right down to the deglamorization of Susan Clark, who in a 1950s film might have looked as though she'd just visited a frontier branch of Max Factor. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi